Facial Dysfunctions Research Articles

Facial Expressions-Controlled Flight Game With Haptic Feedback for Stroke Rehabilitation: A Proof-of-Concept Study

Most stroke patients suffer from a combination of motor and sensory dysfunction and central facial paralysis. Specific rehabilitation training is required to restore those functions. Current research focuses on developing stimulating and straightforward rehabilitation training processes so that patients adhere to the training at home after hospital release. This study proposes enhancing patients enthusiasm to participate in facial muscle exercises and improving their postural perception and balance by controlling virtual objects to complete assigned tasks in virtual reality games using different facial expressions with the assistance of haptic feedback. The different rehabilitation exercises for motor, sensory, and facial dysfunctions were combined in one virtual reality game for the first time. The proposed haptic feedback device was modeled, simulated, and characterized. A user study was conducted to validate the proposed system. The experiment result shows that all the designed functions of the comprehensive stroke rehabilitation virtual reality game can be achieved. The added haptic feedback enhances the performance of the aircraft control with facial expressions by lowering the trajectory deviation by 22.57%. This implies that the proposed game may improve users' performance, thus attracting them to conduct more training.

Correlation between Electrophysiological Change and Facial Function in Parotid Surgery Patients.

This observational study investigated intraoperative electrophysiological changes and their correlation with postoperative facial expressions in parotidectomy patients with visual confirmation of facial nerve (FN) continuity. Maximal electromyography(EMG) amplitudes of the facial muscles corresponding to temporal, zygomatic, buccal and mandibular branches were compared before/after FN dissection, and facial function at four facial regions were evaluated before/after parotidectomy in 112 patients. Comparisons of 448 pairs of EMG signals revealed at least one signal decrease after FN dissection in 75 (67%) patients. Regional facial weakness was only found in 13 of 16 signals with >50% amplitude decreases. All facial dysfunctions completely recovered within 6 months. EMG amplitude decreases often occur after FN dissection. An amplitude decrease >50% in an FN branch is associated with a high incidence of dysfunction in the corresponding facial region. This study tries to establish a standard facial nerve monitoring (FNM) procedure and a proper facial function grading system for parotid surgery that will be useful for the future study of FNM in parotid surgery.

Aanpak en behandelingsopties voor congenitale melanocytaire naevi

Management and treatment options in congenital melanocytic nevi Congenital melanocytic nevi (CMN) are benign collections of nevus cells in the skin. They are present at birth or arise during the first weeks of life. Depending on the size, they appear in 1 in 100 to 500.000 live births. CMN are associated with a variety of benign conditions such as benign proliferations, certain facial characteristics or subtle endocrine dysfunctions as well as malign developments such as melanoma and neurological complications. The risk for these complications strongly depends on the clinical phenotype. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has a strong value in estimating the risk of these complications. A normal MRI of the central nervous system results in a lower risk of developing melanoma and neurological complications because of the thorough follow-up and early capture. Although there are various treatment modalities, a shift to more conservative treatment is seen. Little is known about the long term prognosis after treatment of CMN. This article tries to give a recommendation for treatment and follow-up of CMN based on the current literature.

Bioactive Peptides: Applications and Relevance for Cosmeceuticals

Peptides found in skin can act by different mechanisms of action, being able to function as epidermal or nervous growth factors or even as neurotransmitters. Due to the vast functionality of these compounds, there is growing research on bioactive peptides aimed at investigating their uses in products developed for stimulating collagen and elastin synthesis and improving skin healing. Thus, a literature search on applications of the most common bioactive peptides used in cosmeceuticals was carried out. There is a lack of proper reviews concerning this topic in scientific literature. Nine peptides with specific actions on body and facial dysfunctions were described. It could be noted while searching scientific literature that studies aimed at investigating peptides which prevent aging of the skin are overrepresented. This makes searching for peptides designed for treating other skin dysfunctions more difficult. The use of biomimetic peptides in cosmetic formulations aimed at attenuating or preventing different types of skin dysfunctions is a topic where information is still lackluster. Even though research on these compounds is relatively common, there is still a need for more studies concerning their practical uses so their mechanisms of action can be fully elucidated, as they tend to be quite complex.

Hi4D-ADSIP 3-D dynamic facial articulation database

The face is an important medium used by humans to communicate, and facial articulation also reflects a person's emotional and awareness states, cognitive activity, personality or wellbeing. With the advances in 3-D imaging technology and ever increasing computing power, automatic analysis of facial articulation using 3-D sequences is becoming viable. This paper describes Hi4D-ADSIP — a comprehensive 3-D dynamic facial articulation database, containing scans with high spatial and temporal resolution. The database is designed not only to facilitate studies on facial expression analysis, but also to aid research into clinical diagnosis of facial dysfunctions. The database currently contains 3360 facial sequences captured from 80 healthy volunteers (control subjects) of various age, gender and ethnicity. The database has been validated using psychophysical experiments used to formally evaluate the accuracy of the recorded expressions. The results of baseline automatic facial expression recognition methods using Eigen- and Fisher-faces are also presented alongside some initial results obtained for clinical cases. This database is believed to be one of the most comprehensive repositories of facial 3-D dynamic articulations to date. The extension of this database is currently under construction aiming at building a comprehensive repository of representative facial dysfunctions exhibited by patients with stroke, Bell's palsy and Parkinson's disease.

脳幹部海綿状血管腫の５直達手術の経験

Based on the results of 11 cases of symptomatic brainstem cavernous angiomas (CA), we studied treatment strategy, surgical indication, selection of surgical approaches and other clinical problems. CAs were the pons in 8, the midbrain in 2 and the medulla in 1 patient. Five of the 11 cases were treated by direct surgery and the others had conservative treatment. Surgical cases commonly had progressive or persistent neurological deficits caused by repeated episodes of hemorrhage. The selected surgical approaches were trans 4th ventricular in 3 (via suprafacial triangle in 2, infrafacial triangle in 1), occipital transtentorial in 1 and retrosigmoid in 1 patient. Two recent patients had brainstem mapping or monitoring during operation. Total removal was done in 3, and partial removal with coagulation of CA was done in 2 cases. Transient PPRF and facial dysfunctions developed in all cases with the trans 4th ventricular approach. But permanent facial paralysis remained in 1 patient without intraoperative monitoring. Long-term follow-up (mean of 54.6 months) showed no recurrent hemorrhage and mean KPS score was 84. These results indicate that direct surgery to brainstem CA is safely and successfully performed by appropriate selection of patients and surgical approaches under careful monitoring.

Blink Reflex Excitability Recovery Curves in Patients with Dysfunctions after Facial Nerve Palsy

The blink reflex excitability recovery curves were studied in 12 patients with postparalytic facial dysfunctions (PPFD) and 12 healthy control subjects. The inhibitory effects of the conditioning stimuli on the ipsilateral R2 and contralateral R2 responses observed in control subjects were significantly less in patients with PPFD. The enhanced recovery of the R2 responses was similar on the affected side and unaffected side in the patients. These results indicate that patients with PPFD have an increased excitability of central interneurons which mediate the R2 pathway. It is suggested that not only changes in the peripheral facial nerve but also changes in the central nervous system may contribute to the onset of PPFD.